Mash in cooler + Bag in the bucket

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NunoAraujo

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Hey everyone, I'm about to make my second AG recipe. For the first one I used DeathBrewer's stovetop AG method, but with such a small grain bag as mine I found it to be too much of a PITA, it was hard to maintain temps, etc. So I thought of building a cooler mash tun. However, I'm brewing ~2.5 gal batches, and I can't find a suitable cooler for such small volumes (the ones with a hole). So I thought of mashing in one of my smaller coolers, fitting my bottling bucket with a larger grainbag, and at the end transfer the mash from the cooler to the bucket and sparging. Would this be ok?
 
A 5 gallon round cooler would work for that batch size. But you could do it the way you're proposing as well, sort of like brew in a bag, cooler-style. Or you could just do brew in a bag, mash in you kettle, wrap with lots of blankets to insulate, and no sparge. It's a fun and easy way to do it.
 
Thanks for the suggestions :) I found some sort of SS steamer rack in the pantry, I plan on using it as a false bottom along with the bag, it sits about an inch above the bucket spigot, seems like a good idea...
 
I biabac - brew in a bag and cooler. Holds temps great, easy to mash, sparge, and clean.

image-1604765304.jpg
 
Looks awesome pedimac! Today I found a huge curtain made of voile that I'll be using for the mash, I wish those coolers were easily available in here, looks perfect.
 
Sure, but I can't find a cooler with a small volume and a spigot/hole. What efficiencies are people getting with this?
 
BIAB its the way to go until you get a cooler, i have been looking for a cooler but its hard to get in the winter in Portugal
 
I've used the brew in a bag in a cooler method before, works great

was a 1/2 batch and didn't feel like breaking out the 70-quart, so I used a smaller 16-quart cooler with no spigot. kept the grains in the bag, so all you have to do is lift it out of the cooler. dunk-sparged in the boil kettle, let it drip & squeezed a little. then poured the wort from the cooler into the kettle and continued on with the boil
 
NunoAraujo said:
Sure, but I can't find a cooler with a small volume and a spigot/hole. What efficiencies are people getting with this?

70-74. Good enough for me.
 
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